By Emmanuel Nduka
Kemi Badenoch, leader of the UK’s Conservative Party, has voiced frustration over what she perceives as a disparity in citizenship policies between Nigeria and the United Kingdom.
Speaking on CNN’s Fareed Zakaria GPS on Sunday, Badenoch said she cannot confer Nigerian citizenship on her children because of her gender, despite being of Nigerian descent herself.
Badenoch pledged to make it “a lot harder” for immigrants, especially Nigerians, to acquire British citizenship under her leadership.
“It’s virtually impossible, for example, to get Nigerian citizenship,” she said. “I have that citizenship by virtue of my parents, but I can’t give it to my children because I’m a woman. Yet loads of Nigerians come to the UK and stay for a relatively free period of time, acquire British citizenship. We need to stop being naive,” she added.
When asked if she would support cultural integration efforts that resemble creating a “mini-Nigeria” within the UK, Badenoch replied firmly: “No. That is not right. Nigerians would not tolerate that. That’s not something that many countries would accept.”
She argued that many immigrants engage in practices in the UK that would be deemed unacceptable in their countries of origin.
Badenoch, who has three children with her Scottish husband, Hamish Badenoch, used her family’s experience to highlight what she sees as an imbalance in immigration and nationality policies.
However, her assertion has been contradicted by the Nigerian Constitution. Section 25(1)(c) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) clearly states that a person born outside Nigeria is a citizen by birth if either parent is Nigerian. This means children of Nigerian mothers are equally entitled to citizenship.
Born in the UK in 1980 to Yoruba parents, Badenoch spent much of her early life in Nigeria before moving back to Britain at age 16. She has served in cabinet roles under former Prime Ministers Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak, and her political rise has been bolstered by her tough stance on immigration.
